Mary Poppins | | Cast : | Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke | | Director : | Robert Stevenson | | Studio : | Buena Vista Home Vid | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | August 29, 1964 | | DVD Released Date : | December 14, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | G (General Audience) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | JOLLY GOOD AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! | Content
 | "Mary Poppins" is one of those classic musicals that you probably loved as a kid, then think you outgrew- until you show it to your own kids (or yourself) and happily sing along. That's what I found on viewing this Disney masterpiece for the first time in decades. The fabulous Julie Andrews- already a Broadway/ West End star, and here an Oscar winner right out of the gate- became a beloved institution as the world's most famous nanny. Dick Van Dyke was already a huge TV star before he shined here as Bert the chimney sweep/sidewalk artist/one-man band, weird Noo Yawk-cockney accent and all. A host of Brits both veteran (foppish David Tomlinson and vibrant Glynis Johns) and young (the button-cute Karen Dotrice and the late Matthew Garber) fill out the excellent cast, probably the best in any live-action Disney movie before or since. Look for Van Dyke in his Rip Van Winkle getup, too, as what his old boss Carl Reiner might have called "the 2000-year-old bank president".
The Sherman brothers would score many more Disney and related family movies, but never came close to the joy of this one. With its distinctive Olde English lilt (music-hall, military marches, Gilbert and Sullivan), the music did a huge part to make "Mary Poppins" the treasure it is: "Spoonful of Sugar", "Jolly Holiday", "Chim-Chim-Cheree" (an Oscar winner on its own), the still-haunting "Feed The Birds" and, of course, that busker-flavored number with the 34-letter title...oh, dear, what is it? "Super-Calabogus...Super-California...got it! Docious-Ali-Expi..." Never mind. If you don't know this song, don't bother reading any further and go back to your "adult" fare.
I'd forgotten about the animated sequences and art work that combined with the superb settings and wardrobe (designed by Julie's then-husband) to give "Mary Poppins" its authentic atmosphere and feel for Edwardian London. Disney had a couple of house Brits- director Robert Stevenson ("Swiss Family Robinson",
"Treasure Island") and artist Peter Ellenshaw (his gorgeous title painting of Olde London Towne)- who really did transport you back in time along with the cast and songs. The animation isn't exactly Pixar-style, but the soft-color, old-school Disney
look is just right for the carnival/teatime/race course "Jolly Holiday" sequence, penguins and all.
The bonus material, as you'd expect for a true classic, is superb. We learn from the documentary feature (almost an hour in itself) that Disney pursued the movie rights as early as 1938. You might say it was worth his wait! Just about all of the surviving principals are part of the extras and commentary, which include two delightful musical segments with songwriter Dick Sherman. One of these brings back Julie and Dick to reminisce and sing their songs- most warmly indeed. On his own, Sherman reveals the inspiration for the tunes ("Step In Time" was adapted from the music-hall dance tune "Knees Up Mother Brown"). There are moving moments, too: Sherman on how "Feed The Birds" moved Walt like no other song; a still-girlish Karen Dotrice, long-retired from acting, breaks down when she tells of co-star Matthew Garber's death at 21 and Walt's own passing two years after "Poppins"' release. Not many movies can stir such emotions, happy and sad, 40 years on- this one does. Finally, as with many Disney (and Pixar) DVDs, there's an animated bonus: "The Cat who Looked at the King", adapted from a later P.L. Travers story, a cute little cartoon fable featuring great voice work by Tracey Ullman (as a white kitten with a moral) and David Ogden Stiers (as know-it-all Old King Cole).
Whether you have children or not, it should be a must to watch "Mary Poppins" at least once a year, as not only a great piece of true family entertainment but a reminder of how both Disney and Hollywood really did care about quality movies for ages 3 to 93. A wonderful package for a wonderful musical- the kind you know they don't make any more. Highly recommended!
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| Rating | | | Date | July 23, 2005 | | Summary | A Mary Poppins Newbie | Content
| I think most visitors to this site will find this review to be of interest. I may well be one of the few people in the world who never saw "Mary Poppins" as a kid. You read that right. I saw it for the first time ever on DVD last night. I don't think I was quite as blown away by the film as I would have been had I first seen it as a child; the movie is clearly intended for kids. And some of the special effects (for which the film won an Academay Award in 1964) do look dated. Nevertheless, this is obviously a great film, indeed a classic film. I confess, "Mary Poppins" is not exactly my cup of tea; as children's films go, I still prefer movies like "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" or "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". Both of those films tend to be more adventurous in spirit (a magic car, a magic chocolate factory, etc.) but I guess that's just the nature of the beast: "Mary Poppins" is a movie about a magic governess: the story is necessarily of a much more domesticated character. The performances are all standouts, especially Julie Andrews (a 1964 Oscar for Best Actress) who demonstrates supreme self-confidence in this her first starring role and Dick Van Dyke who has to be doing the worst Cockney accent in the history of motion pictures ("Shtep in Toime!" Van Dyke yells, in what sounded to my ear like an unprecedented combination of Yiddish and British). The technology to combine live-action footage and cell-animation has long since been surpassed (notably with "Who framed Roger Rabbit?") but it has never been used more effectively than here. That wonderful scene where Dick Van Dyke dances with four animated penguins still holds up 40 years after it was filmed. Unquestionably, however, this movie's greatest asset is its musical score by the Sherman Brothers and that score is simply a knockout. Premiering in the same year as the motion-picture version of "My Fair Lady" I dareasy the score to "Mary Poppins" is almost as strong. Songs like "Sister Suffragette" and the inevitable "Step in Time" (where all the chimneysweeps dance on the London rooftops) I can do without. But songs like "A Spoonful of Sugar" and "Jolly Holiday" are instant classics: once you hear them you will never forget them. And the song "Feed the Birds" about the old woman who sits on the steps of St. Paul's cathedral and sells bags of crumbs to feed the birds is genuinely affecting ("...though her words are simple and few/ Listen, listen, she's calling to you"...). I can't see how anybody can hear a song like that and fail to be touched. A word about "Mary Poppins" reputation: before I saw this film I was aware that it had gotten a bad rap as "treacle", "syrupy-sweet". Not true. "Mary Poppins" is wholesome in the best sense of that term. The movie displays a simplicity and an innocence that movies just don't seem to have anymore; perhaps we live in a more cynical time. Pity. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 20, 2005 | | Summary | Aged well, entertaining, pertinent tie-ins to our modern life | Content
| I first saw this film in the theater, on it's premiere. If I'm not mistaken, it was a very early multiplex in Los Angeles. Of course I was captivated. I saw it again, over the years, on T.V., "Wizard Of Oz" style, with commercials, although the ads never seemed to attach themselves to film the way they did with the "Wizard", where I can still identify the scenes where the commercials are due.
Then, as I grew up, and older, I aquired a more jaded view of "Mary Poppins", and ignored it for more than a decade. And, fairly recently, I happened upon "Mary Poppins" on T.V., and realized that my memories were not accurate.
It was not the repulsive '60s musical, ala "Sound Of Music", with the obnoxiously blonde, dreadfully perfect, aryan, children; but a wonderfully escapist piece, with bytes of subversiveness, referring to suffragettes, and a woman's place in Edwardian society, and what they were doing about it; a subversiveness that "SOM" completely lacked, even with it's much darker Nazi overtones. Can I strangle those brats with the drapes, now?
But lately, in watching the film, I notice that Cherry Tree Lane was all too awfully, a harbinger of the banal suburban housing tracts that dominate our lost farmlands and suburban sprawl, today. One can see the imprimatur of Disneyland, and Disneyland Culture, all over this film, except that, when it debuted, this clarion call was not a part of the film that any, but the most clear headed, and most strident activists would have picked up.
Oh my.
But don't let that deter you, this is a wonderful film. This is a product from an era when Disney was a film maker, and not the metaphor of all that went wrong with American society. It was, after all, our fellow Americans that took the message to heart, and made a mess out of it. Don't let them screw it up for you.
I highly recommend this film for escapist entertainment, and I won't even feed a pidgeon, even in the company of children! (They're wild animals, like the Parrots of Telegraph Hill, and Chicago...)
This is a fine film. Watch it. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 16, 2005 | | Summary | There be Magic in the Air | Content
| I hang out with my brother because no one likes us, and sometimes we stay up all night and analyze movies. As usual, he's right. Nearly all successful childrens films, books, etc...have something to do with the supra-natural. Witchcraft usually. Mary Poppins is the nicest witch ever. She crafts order from chaos, turns brats into nice children, and turns real life into a happy cartoon. The songs are ageless, timeless, and charming. Mary Poppins is a very powerful witch indeed! I'm sure that children will be spellbound and unable to unglue thier little eyes from the screen. For older people like me, I am way impressed by the seamless special effect; for example, Mary's carpet bag that's deep enough to hold a 7' lamp, other furnishings too, but her bag is only about 14" deep. I think it would have made a good series watching Mary go from house to house in ancient England rescuing needy families. Engaging and lovely. A truly wonderful film! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 07, 2005 | | Summary | Great Movie!!! | Content
| loved watching it with my daughter. She is eight...she is still walking around singing the songs and we watched it weeks ago!Great family entertainment! |
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